In what appears to be a huge setback for the United Auto Workers (UAW), Volkswagen in Chattanooga issued a new policy on Wednesday entitled “Community Organization Engagement” which opens the door for VW employees who want alternative representation without the UAW. While the UAW is wrongly touting VW’s new policy (posted in full below) as a means of making it easier for the UAW to | Read More »

Question: When do you know a union trying to unionize a group of workers has worn out its welcome? Answer: When the union’s supporters tell the union to go away. A mere four months after the United Auto Workers’ devastating defeat at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, pro-union workers at Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Alabama want the UAW to go away. While the UAW had had more | Read More »

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the UAW’s efforts to unionize a VW plant in Tennessee, Senator Bob Corker’s 11th hour bombshell and why the left will never support the solution to income inequality.

You’re not really shocked by this, are you?

In a rather unsurprising announcement last week, the National Labor Relations Board’s Office of the General Counsel–which is headed by the former general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, Richard Griffin–chose to dismiss VW employees’ allegations that the United Auto Workers and VW, through its German union, had violated the rights of VW’s employees in Chattanooga.

As outgoing United Auto Workers’ President Bob King tries to do everything within his power to unionize the American workers of German-based Volkswagen, the tactics used on VW employees have already been the subject of unfair labor practice charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board. In addition, as the UAW states its goal to be more cooperative and to “partner” with VW and its | Read More »

There really is only one way to describe the rather sudden reversal of position among VW’s German union bosses on the potential expansion of VW’s Chattanooga plant…

Last Thursday, Bernd Osterloh, the head of the Volkswagen’s global works council and a member of the company’s supervisory board stated that expansion of VW’s Chattanooga plant would not hinge on unionization of the plant’s employees:
Read More »

With Volkswagen employees delivering an anti-UAW petition to management last Friday, the big battle over the UAW’s do-or-die efforts to unionize VW’s employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee is heating up.

Although VW employees have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the UAW’s deceptive card-signing tactics, it remains to be seen whether Barack Obama’s union appointees at the NLRB will address any union-related violations of VW employees’ rights.

With its future hinging on unionizing the American factories of foreign automakers, the United Auto Workers has been desperately courting Volkwagen’s 2700 employees in Tennessee since 2011. According to news reports on Wednesday, a majority of Volkswagen AG’s employees in Chattanooga have signed union authorization cards indicating the desire “to join VW’s Global Works Council and supporting cooperative and collaborative relations with the company.” The | Read More »

Not withstanding the UAW’s contribution to the decline of Detroit’s Big Three, it’s been more than two years since the UAW’s Bob King announced his union’s intent to “shame” foreign auto makers into unionizing their American workers through “blackmail.”

Moreover, it’s been nearly two years since the UAW’s King began talks with the German union IG Metal and VW’s works council.

With some set backs, to date, progress at unionizing foreign automakers’ U.S. operations has been slow going for Detroit’s most progressive union boss–to say the least.

Now, even as the UAW fights with its own employees, things have begun to heat up in the South.

Rough day for Michigan families yesterday. Despite (lackluster) efforts at job creation and retention in the auto industry the day brought one round of bad news after another. The same day General Motors announced plans to reduce their payroll by a full twenty-percent, estimated at well over 3,000 jobs, we get word that Chattanooga, Tennessee, will be the new home of a Volkswagen plant, a | Read More »